Disbarred Lawyer Convicted Of Forging Lien Release, Satisfaction Of Mortgage On Loans Secured By His Property Wins Termination Of Sentence

In Naples, Florida, the Naples Daily News reports that, after serving 3 years of house arrest, a disbarred real estate attorney has been relieved of having to serve the 12 additional years probation originally contained in his sentence in connection with a January, 2005 no contest plea to two counts of grand theft of more than $100,000 and forgery. The ruling allows David Szempruch to reapply for his license to practice law. With respect to these charges, the story recounts:

• [S]zempruch was first criminally investigated after a complaint from a woman who loaned him $130,000 for a real estate investment. Under an agreement, Szempruch gave Dorothea Cardin the mortgages on two properties he owned and she received an initial check for $1,650, but it bounced. She then determined he’d forged a partial release of her mortgage and the satisfaction of a mortgage for another woman, Jeanne Lyster.

• Investigators determined Szempruch used part of the $130,000 loan to cover a $190,000 shortfall in his escrow account, which was supposed to contain funds for a [...] condominium closing.

• He’d taken out two mortgages on property he owned [...] after borrowing $200,000 from Lyster, securing about $148,000 of that by making Lyster the mortgage lienholder. But prosecutors said he forged her signature on paperwork he filed with the Clerks of Courts that said those mortgages had been satisfied.

For the story, see 'Humiliated' and disbarred Naples attorney pays off debt, judge ends his probation.